3/22/16

Congratulations
to the country of Columbia who qualified for a slot in the 2015 World Baseball Classic
(WBC). It was especially sweet when they won that game with a go ahead home run
in the bottom of the 8th inning by the Mets Dilson
Herrera.

Mets
pitching coach Dan Wathen got relief pitcher Antonio Bastardo right back to the back mounds to work
on correcting some of the things that might be creating his 8.10 ERA this
spring. Matt Harvey was back there also working
on his stuff.

Astrubel Cabrera got out early to field ground balls.

Kristie Ackert - Cabrera
said ground balls went well. He feels good. See how he feels tomorrow.

Jacob deGrom and Steven Matz will
start the Mets' games in Vegas against the Cubs on March 31 & April 1.

Adam Rubin ‏- Terry
Collins says Noah Syndergaard is likely
to pitch in Game 2 of the season in K.C., but it may just be in relief.

Mack – This is a
variation on the theory I wrote about last week. The Mets will have three days
off over the first five days of the schedule this year. It also sets up a
scenario where the Mets 5th game of the season, which normally would
be the scheduled second start for Harvey, would take place on April 11th,
nine days into the season. Pitching Syndergaard in relief on April 5th
fits in perfect with a first start on April 10th.

Later on
yesterday, Adam Yorke
had a different version of this scenario which would have Syndergaard starting
Game 2 and Jacob deGrom coming in for relief in that game.

Obviously, we may
either have to wait this out for a better definition by TC.

The New York Mets surprised a
lot of people last season by winning the National League East division and
making it all the way to the World Series. They did so with a mostly young,
elite starting rotation and the key members of that rotation remain intact. Not
only that, but the young big three — Jacob deGrom,
Matt Harvey and Noah
Syndergaard — have more big league experience than they did a year ago.
Harvey is now a full season removed from Tommy John surgery and posted a 2.71
ERA in 2015, and the combination of Harvey, deGrom and Syndergaard posted a
2.81 ERA. What’s scary is that all three have the potential to be even better
in 2016, should they remain healthy. And we haven’t gotten to Steven Matz, who was phenomenal in his six late season
starts or soon-to-be 43 year-old home run hitting machine Bartolo Colon. They will likely be the fourth and
fifth starters, at least until Zack Wheeler comes
back from his Tommy John surgery (he’s expected to return before the All-Star
break).

On the offensive side, the Mets
lost postseason hero Daniel Murphy to free
agency, but don’t feel too bad for the boys from Flushing because they still
have masher Lucas Duda, who is hoping to
replicate his 2014 and 2015 campaigns when he hit 30 and 27 homers
respectively, Yoenis Cespedes, back after many
people thought he’d leave due to free agency, and the captain, David Wright, who is hoping that 2016 is a better
season health wise than 2015.

We’re going to be honest here:
If the Mets’ starting rotation improves upon 2015’s performance in 2016, the
offense may not need to score much.

#7 – Mets - In one sense, last year was
a little frustrating for d’Arnaud, because injuries cost him so much playing
time. In another sense, it was a positive year, because there are signs of an
offensive breakout. His ISO pushed north of .200, which is a hell of a thing to
blend with above-average skills in the field. Now, just to be something of a
wet blanket, d’Arnaud faced the worst opposing pitchers of everyone in baseball
who batted at least 250 times, according to Baseball Prospectus. You can
understand how the Mets faced some weak competition down the stretch, and that
boosted the team’s various offensive performances. But it’s not like that means
d’Arnaud was a total mirage. He got help, but he’s good. He’s good, he’s
healthy, and he’s 27.

If something does go awry with
d’Arnaud, Monell might be the first reserve, but it’s Plawecki who could
develop into another regular. He went and had himself a miserable 2015 —
big-league paycheck and everything aside — but Plawecki has been a minor-league
weapon in the past, and if he returns to the minors it’s in order to get
regular playing time. To put this simply: It looks like a steep drop-off after
d’Arnaud, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be.

For what it’s worth, Jacob deGrom’s velocity was down again yesterday for the third straight game.
Just 90-93, but he still seems to be very effective… four scoreless innings,
five strikeouts and a 0.90-ERA.

This could simply be conservative approach after having a lower
back issue earlier in camp (pundits point out that his current velocity is
exactly where it was last year at the same point in camp).

Marc Carig ‏- Heard from a scout who says
deGrom looks like he’s taking it easy out there today, since he could see
Marlins plenty in regular season.

I still think Plawecki got rushed to the bigs in 2015 and had a serious sinus issue that affected his play in 2015. He is past both, and I bet we see him hit .260.

I'd like to see rosters expanded to 26 if, for nothing else, to allow a 3rd catcher. Monell said he worked with Long to shorten his swing a bit, and his K's this spring are down. He is most likely a major league caliber 3rd string catcher, if not better - but due to roster composition, hard to see him getting much major league daylight in his career.